Sorry Just Doesn't Cut It
by Aleixi
Summary: "Stop it!" she cried, "I'm sorry! I don't wanna do this anymore! Don't make me do this!" she begged, "I'm sorry!" After striking down the murderer over and over something different happens. Did her mind finally snap, or has there been something darker and more sinister at play here all along? Rated T for the violence, because Sans is not a happy skeleton when you kill his brother.


What was she doing? He just didn't understand it. The first time he figured she would fall for it for the simple reason that she was trying to do the same thing he was-strike him down when his guard was down. The second and third time he figured she was thinking that he would never suspect her to attempt the same trick.

But this was the seventh time she had accepted his false offer of mercy.

"It's not gonna work, kiddo. Just give up. That's the only way you're getting out of here. We aren't friends and never were." Sans said as he struck her down again.

Quite honestly, at this point she could probably beat him if she wanted to. If she would just move past this. Of course it occurred to him to just move on- to forgo the farce and just continue on with his assault, but he couldn't because…

Because Papyrus had believed in her, and he cared about Papyrus more than he had ever cared about anything else in this world. Papyrus had given her a second chance, and even though he was gone, his brother would never forgive him for not offering the human the same choice.

Sure he was throwing that offer back in her face, just as she had thrown it in Papyrus's face just a few days ago, but the choice was still there. When she denied it-when she lunged at him knife in hand rather than dropping it on the ground and moving to him with tears in her eyes, then he would have the confirmation that he needed. The confirmation that she was more of a monster than any of the monsters in the Underground and could never be rehabilitated.

Twenty seven tries. He gave her the offer once again and she stood there watching him. He stared patiently back; was this it? Had he finally driven her over the edge? Surely she must have been driven completely mad by this point. Maybe that was why she kept accepting it. The girl was smart so she had to know nothing was going to change.

She dropped the knife, but this time she dropped with it and tears welled up in her eyes and she cried.

"Stop it!" she cried, "I'm sorry! I don't wanna do this anymore! Don't make me do this!" she begged, "I'm sorry!"

"You think sorry fixes anything?!" Sans yelled, outraged as he reached his left hand out and pinned her with his magic and drew nearer, "does it bring any of them back? Shyren? Undyne? My brother?" he flung her against a wall and felt sick satisfaction in hearing her cry of pain; the first she'd uttered since fighting him, "What about any of the other creatures you killed? The ones you spent hours seeking out? Do you think apologies mean anything to them?" he flung her against another wall as hard as he could and watched as she fell to the floor, cracks in the wall where she hit, "the monsters you need to apologize to can't hear you! They'll never hear you because they're dead! You killed them!"

"I-I know!" the little girl struggled to her knees, "I know!" she sobbed, "I know, I know, I know!" she screamed.

"You knew exactly what you were doing, and you had every opportunity to stop and you threw it in their faces! You went back to fight them! You spent hours seeking out every monster you could to slaughter them in the most brutal way possible! You systematically struck each and every one of them down, and when you failed?" he flung her against another wall, then the ceiling, then down on to the floor in front of him, "You went back in time and fought them again." He hissed lowly, "You learned their moves so you could take them down and you killed them!" he threw her away against a wall so hard it shook.

He walked over to her, eye burning as brightly as his fury, "and now that it's become hard-now that it's become too difficult for you to handle- _now_ you want to quit? Now you want to apologize? Now you expect mercy when you couldn't be bothered to show even a scrap of it yourself?!" he raised his hand to finally deliver the decisive blow. He knew she would be back after, but he was done with this, for now anyway.

"NO!" the girl sobbed, "I didn't want to! I didn't want to kill them! I didn't want to hurt them! I didn't want to hurt _anyone!_ "

Now Sans saw red, and he slapped her face. He didn't use his magic, didn't kill her-compared to what he'd done before, he hadn't even really hurt her, though she still flinched and a hand slowly came up to touch her face where he'd struck and the tears came faster, if that were even possible. She didn't seem to be breathing she was so shocked, and Sans struggled to keep his voice steady.

"You little brat…" he whispered, "You lying little brat…I saw you! Nearly everyone down here is dead and there's no point denying it! You're covered in the evidence!" he pointed at her dusty hands and clothes, "Who the hell do you think you're trying to kid here?!" he suddenly roared.

"I didn't want to!" the girl cried again, reaching out but flinching back when Sans's eye flared up even more, now flashing a dangerous and angry yellow color, "I swear, Sans…It wasn't…I didn't…Sans I…I'm sorry…" she curled in on herself, trembling as she continued muttering quietly, "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…So sorry…I-I'm sorry…"

Sans was confused. This wasn't what he expected. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. It was like the kid had completely switched personalities now.

"You're taking this joke pretty far now aren't ya?" Sans said quietly, fighting to keep the anger in his voice as he watched the little girl cry. No longer did she look like the demon creature that had set out and killed every monster that she could possibly find, but a small, scared little child that just needed someone to help her and guide her in the right direction.

The girl just shook her head and cried harder, but now her hands came to her head and she clutched at her hair, shaking her head, "Stop it! Stop it, stop it, stop it!" she cried, "I don't want to! I-! I don't-!" her right hand started reaching out for the knife, shaking, "Stop it!" she screamed as her fingers tightly gripped the handle.

"That's enough!" the girl suddenly leapt off the ground, no longer impeded by her injuries as she lunged at Sans with her knife in her hand and a crazed look in her eyes, the lights reflecting off them in a way that made them look red like old blood.

Sans barely had time to leap away and his hand came out in front of him to block her with the blue attack. The girl fought and struggled but his grip grew tighter as he tried to puzzle out what was happening.

"Either finish this or let me attack!" the girl snarled, "I'm not falling for your stupid tricks anymore! I've had it with these stupid games you're playing, now either fight me for real or just keel over and die!"

"What are you?" Sans demanded. Something strange was at play here and he needed to get to the bottom of this. Even if he was just going to wind up dying in the end, he still needed to know; the scientist in him demanded it.

"I'm your worst nightmare. A demon to your kind. A human." The girl snarled, "Your kind should have all been killed years ago; I'm just finishing the job."

"What kind of sick game are you playing here, kid? What kind of person does this to creatures who never did anything to them in the first place?"

"Because you're just so much better than me, aren't you?" the girl said in a mocking tone, "you've watched this happen hundreds of times, allowed it to happen, allowed all of your friends to die and you haven't done a single thing to stop it! You wait until it's too late, hoping that things will change even though you know full well that it won't do any good! You fight, but deep down you know it's pointless, so why don't you just do what you do best and just give up?!" the girl said with a maniacal laugh.

Sans's eye burned bright cyan as he tightened his grip and the girl choked, "You really want to test me? I've been holding back until now."

"Do it," the girl dared, "You know it won't do any good. I'll just keep coming back, over and over and over until I've finally killed you, and then I'll destroy this world once and for all!"

"No, you won't," realisation settled over Sans, "because you're not in complete control. There's something that is holding you back. That's keeping you from killing me. It's what kept you offering mercy even when you knew I was lying. There's someone else. Someone who you have trapped."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" the child snarled, "Now die!" she managed to break free from the magic that held her and lunged at Sans again.

Sans was ready this time and dodged the attack easily, "you're not the kid, are you? You're something else completely." He said, "A different kid than the one who fell down here a few days ago."

"Shut up!" she lunged again, this time managing to catch the sleeve of his sweater and causing a tiny tear in it.

"So who are you? What's your name?"

"I don't have to tell you anything!" the girl screamed, her attacks becoming wilder and fiercer.

"The other humans that fell…They're determination wasn't as strong as yours. Very few humans have that kind of determination."

"Enough!"

"I myself can only think of one other child."

"Quit it!"

"She was the very first child to ever fall down here and live with monsters."

"I said stop it!"

"The king and queen took her in when their son brought him home after finding her fallen on the ground."

"Stop it!"

"You know who that child is, don't you?"

"Shut up!"

"Let her go, Chara!" Sans ordered as he dodged another attack. They were getting easier to avoid as the girl was swinging the knife wildly, rather than in the controlled manner that she had been attacking earlier in the fight, "Your time ended long ago, that kid in there did nothing wrong." He flung her into the wall and watched as she crumpled into a heap at the base of the wall.

There was a long silence before the girl got to her feet, "how quick you are to blame me, even seeing the dust on her hands. She was the one who let me in you know. I offered her power and she jumped on it! I wouldn't have gotten so strong if she hadn't been willing to kill everyone in the first place. It may be me now, but it was her who started it!" Chara laughed, "And now, it's as you said, now that it's getting hard-now that it's become too difficult for her, now she wants to quit. But guess what? I'm not going to let her! I'm forcing her to finish this game until the bitter, bloody end, no matter how long it takes! I WILL defeat you, and I WILL destroy this world, and then! You know what I'm going to do after that? I'm going to force her to start all over again, and we'll be right back here again, doing this same song and dance, and every time it'll be harder for her to resist! Each time it'll be easier for me to take control! Each time her friends and family will forget her a little more, and she'll give up hope, and I'll be in complete control! Every creature down here in this miserable world will be at my mercy!"

"You don't know the meaning of the word, mercy, you little brat!" Sans growled, "You took advantage of her fear in landing down here. You scared her into letting you take control!"

"Whatever you need to tell yourself to make you feel better about killing her all these times." Chara said in a mocking tone, "now, what do you say we skip past all this and finally finish this fight, shall we?"

"Oh, we'll finish it alright!" Sans reached for her soul, now able to distinguish that there seemed to be two entities alive within it. The cruel, dominating one that he now knew to be Chara and, now that he was looking for it, a small, scared piece that was weakly struggling, seeming to cry out to him, "I'm sorry about this, kiddo," he said as he tore the soul in two.

The scream that echoed through the large, empty ramshackle room was nothing short of horrifying, and it would have made Sans's skin crawl if he had any. He forced himself to continue even as the agonizing cry got louder and became more twisted and tortured. Finally he succeeded and breathlessly he allowed the piece of the soul that was the child to settle back in the body and held the piece that was Chara in front of him.

"It's over," he snarled, "You're over." He clenched his fist tightly and felt the soul get crushed under the influence of the gravity field.

A calm settled over the room and Sans stood there breathlessly for several long moments, gasping with the effort. Fighting was generally harder for him than it was for other monsters for the soul fact that he was inherently weak. Only one health point meant that he couldn't risk taking a hit or else he would die and so he had to work hard to be able to avoid attacks regardless of who he was fighting. When he was against an opponent like Chara who actually wanted to kill him and had the ability…Well, he was just lucky that he had managed to finish her off when he did.

Sans looked over at the little curled up little girl in front of him, then allowed his eyes to travel around the destruction of the room. The destruction that was caused by his own magic. As destructive as the kid had been on the lives of monsters, she didn't have any power to do anything to the physical geography of the area. This was all him. Looking at the destruction he realized just how hard he had gone; he really hadn't held back as much as he probably should have, especially seeing as he had been fighting such a small girl.

"I guess you really weren't doing this at all…were you?" Sans asked softly as he stepped forward and knelt down beside the whimpering child. The little girl curled up tighter and a tiny cry of pain and fear escaped her and Sans felt a pang of guilt in his soul. "Ahh, geez kid…Heh, I really banged you up, didn't I?" He paused as he took off his sweater and gently draped it over the little girl, taking a second to marvel at the fact that she was so small that it completely enveloped her when she was curled up this way. "Hang in there, kiddo." He told her.

Sans brushed a hand over the bloodstained, dusty hair, "My god…" he whispered, "What have I don't to you…? I…I shoulda…" he shook his head, "God, look at you…You're bruised all over. Don't worry though, we're gettin' outta here now. You'll be okay, just…Just hold on a little longer." He gently picked up the little girl, surprised at how light she was, and teleported back to his house in Snowdin.

It didn't take long to get from the corridor to the living room, but to the poor, traumatized girl, it was far too long. She was shaking and sobbing and the moment Sans lay her down on the couch she was struggling to get away, crying as her injuries prevented her from making any sort of headway.

"Hey now!" Sans said, steadying her with one hand, "take it easy now, you're fine. You're safe here." When the girl kept trying to run he automatically used his magic to keep her in place.

Big mistake.

"No! Please! Let go! Put me down! I don't wanna die! Stop it! Let me go! Please! Someone, help me!" she sobbed brokenly, but no one came.

Sans released his hold on her, realizing what he'd done-what he had been doing, "Oh geez, I…Kiddo, I-" but what did you say to a scared, traumatized little girl who was just hanging on to life by a thread?

"Just go away…" she begged brokenly, "Please…Please don't hurt me…"

"I won't…I won't hurt you anymore, I-" he couldn't bring himself to promise. He had promised the woman on the other side of the door that he would protect any child that came through the door, and look where that brought them. He had allowed the majority of the Underworld to be slaughtered and then nearly killed the child anyway. "I-I'll…I'll go find you something to eat…Just…Stay here…Okay?" he didn't get a response and so he slowly exited the room and went into the kitchen.

He watched the little girl as she shook and cried, wiping her tears frantically with the sleeve of her striped shirt. He braced his hands on the counter as he tried to catch his breath again-a task that he was finding more and more difficult to do the longer he was around the kid, but he couldn't just abandon her, not now, not like this. It took him a moment to regain his composure before he found some food-a cinnamon bunny that he had bought the day before but never ate. He placed it on a plate and brought it out to the living room and sat on the other end of the couch and held the plate out, "Here," he said lowly, "You should eat."

The little girl sniffled and looked up before shaking her head, curling in on herself. Sans held the plate a little longer before setting it down on the table and looking down at his hands. The silence seemed to stretch on forever before Sans breathed a heavy sigh and stood up, not missing the fact that the little girl flinched violently away from him.

"I'll go see if there's something you can wear. What you have are an absolute mess." Sans said, hands in his pockets as he stood to go upstairs. He figured one of his t-shirts would make a pretty decent nightgown for the girl, and he'd be able to wash out the dust from the clothes she was currently wearing. However he got to the bottom of the stairs and heard a panicked noise and the rustling of fabric. He turned and was shocked to see the little girl fighting to get her oversized sweater up over her head, and whimpering more as it refused to come off.

"Woah, hey now!" Sans started to take his left hand from his pocket to keep her from hurting herself in her desperate attempt to remove the sweater but stopped himself, remembering the last time he used his magic on her just a little while ago. Instead he stepped closer and physically moved her arms down, "just take it easy, there's no rush to change."

"I…I don't wanna wear it!" the girl cried, pulling at the sweater, "It's covered in…" she started sobbing anew.

Sans closed his eyes as he sighed, "Alright, kiddo," he reached over and helped her pull the sweater over her head to reveal the white t shirt underneath, "What d'ya say you take a bath to clean up, huh? I'll find you something to wear and then you can go to bed and we'll figure the rest of this out in the morning, alright?"

The girl nodded with a sniff and pushed herself off the edge of the couch, wincing as the action aggravated her injuries. Sans looked at the cinnamon bunny still sitting on the table, "You really should eat," he told her, "You'll feel better if you do." This time she shook her head, just as she had when he had originally offered it. "Why not?" he asked, "You know it will help. I didn't poison it or anything." Maybe that was her problem. He had been trying to kill her only an hour before, hell, he'd succeeded nearly thirty times at it. He couldn't expect her to just start trusting him. He himself could barely stand being here with her with every bone screaming at him to run or kill it or do _something_ about this creature. It was only through sheer will that he stayed here, constantly reminding himself that this child was not the murderer, not really. That had been Chara, and he had destroyed that piece of the child's soul.

The girl shook her head again, "Th-that's n-not it…" she said in a quiet voice, sounding hoarse.

"Do you dislike cinnamon?" Sans asked. It was a perfectly innocent question, but it caused the little girl to dissolve into a puddle of tears, sobbing with renewed anguish.

Sans looked around the room nervously. He didn't know how to deal with this. Kids had never been his forte; that had always been Papyrus's specialty. Sure he cracked jokes with such frequency it drove everyone around him close to insanity, but when it came to things that were really bad, Papyrus was the one that could make the children in Snowdin feel better. Sans couldn't help feeling like his brother should have been the one standing here now. Papyrus would help the child. This kid needed a parent, and in lieu of that, someone with the ability to help and heal. Sans was in no way that person; after the day he'd had, he was just as broken as the kid and was in no way in a position to help heal them.

"C-come on now," he said nervously, "It's not that bad. I can find you something else to eat if you want?"

The girl shook her head again, shaking with such ferocity Sans was starting to wonder if her soul wouldn't break from the vibrations. Certainly he knew that wasn't how things worked, but with how bad it was he was beginning to doubt the laws that governed their world.

"Then what is it?" he asked, "If it's not the cinnamon, then-"

"Sh-she a-a-asked m-me that t-t-too!" the little girl sobbed, "A-a-and then I…I…!"

Killed her. Whoever 'her' was. The child must have been offered something with cinnamon and then killed the person afterwards, and now…

"C'mon," he said quietly after a moment, "let's get you cleaned up."

Sans shut the bathroom door behind him to let the human girl clean herself up after filling the bathtub partway with water. In his hands he held the sweater and pants she had been wearing which were covered in the dust of the dozens of monsters she had slain, as well as her own blood. Much of it was dry, and the wounds that would have caused them were no longer on the child's body as they had reset time, but it was still disturbing to know that the small, skinny child had been fighting so much in order to get wounds of that magnitude. Even more disturbing when Sans thought back to the fact that many of those wounds had in fact been inflicted by him.

He walked slowly down the hall and deposited the clothes in the sink in the kitchen and turned on the tap before pulling out his phone. There were a several messages from Alphys and he opened his inbox to check them.

 **The monsters are evacuated. You no longer need to stall for time. Get yourself out of there!**

 **Sans? Where are you?**

 **Sans, don't do something stupid! Papyrus and Undyne wouldn't want this!**

 **Sans, call me!**

 **Sans!**

Sans sighed as he dialed Alphys's number slowly, and wasn't entirely surprised when she picked up in the middle of the first ring.

"S-S-Sans!" she exclaimed, "You're a-alive! Wh-where are you?!"

"I'm back in Snowdin," he said lowly, "the danger is over. Everyone can come back now."

"Wh-what? What do you m-mean? Wh-what happened?"

"The creature that killed everyone is gone. I took care of it. It's safe now." Sans leaned tiredly against the wall, then loudly slid down to land on the ground.

"S-Sans?! Wh-what was that n-noise?! A-are you h-h-hurt?!" Alphys asked in a panic.

"Jus' tired…" he muttered, "fighting a kid with the power to reset timelines really takes it outta ya."

"That's what it did? Th-then how are you-? How did you-?"

"It wasn't the kid…Not really…The kid's safe, and the murderer is dead."

"S-Sans?" Alphys said in a soft, hesitant voice, "Y-you're not m-making much s-sense right now…"

"It's safe to come home. No one else is gonna…" he felt tears well up in his eyes, "I-I gotta go…" he managed to get out after a long silence.

"Sans, wai-!" he cut off the timid scientist before she could demand any more answers from him. He knew he'd be in for a tongue lashing from her when the surviving monsters returned, but for the moment he couldn't find in him the strength to do anything but sit there on the floor and cry for his lost friends and family.

Sans didn't know how long he had been sitting there. It could have been a few minutes, or a few hours, but he finally remembered the kid still upstairs whom he had told to clean up and then wait for him to bring her something to wear. He had taken her clothes and they were still soaking in the sink and it wasn't like the kid was just going to wander around naked. Not here in Snowdin. Sure they were indoors, but it wasn't like it was incredibly warm. He wiped his eyes and forced himself to his feet and trudged up the stairs to his room where he found a clean grey t-shirt. He took a moment longer to change himself, though it looked nearly identical to the clothes he had been wearing before, and just left those on the floor while he took the t-shirt in his hands and walked back to the bathroom, grabbing a blue fluffy towel from the closet next to it.

"Kiddo?" he asked as he knocked on the door, "I'm comin' in, okay?"

He didn't receive a response and hesitantly opened the door. The little girl was sitting beside the bathtub, shivering from cold. Sans could see that the water had gone cold, and judging from how dry the child was, it had probably been a while. A pang of guilt hit him as he realized he must have been downstairs longer than he had originally thought, but he stepped over and wrapped the warm towel around the girl's tiny body.

"Sorry, kiddo," he apologized, "lost track of the time on ya. Why didn't you call?"

The little girl sniffed miserably, "I-I did…"she sobbed, "But…Nobody came…"

Sans really didn't know how to respond to that. He hadn't heard her, although, judging by the several new messages left on his phone from when he'd hung up on Alphys, he hadn't heard much of anything while he had been wallowing in self-pity. He started drying the girls hair with the towel and helped her stand, "let's get you dressed, then you can eat something and go to bed."

The girl shook her head, "I don't wanna eat…" she whispered.

"C'mon, kiddo, you gotta eat. You'll get sick if you don't."

"Don't wanna…"

Sans sighed, "Fine, you don't have to eat right now then. Let's just get you to bed." He helped her into the shirt and walked her down the hallway into his bedroom. The place was a mess, as was usual, but he really didn't think the kid would care. She could barely move as it was and seemed to be falling asleep on her feet. She wrapped herself under the covers tightly and squeezed her eyes shut as tears slipped down her cheeks and Sans sat on the bed next to her, "Do you want me to stay?" he asked, though he hoped the answer was no. He was still unable to clamp down on the fear in his own chest and just wanted to get away. Luckily, the girl shook her head and Sans left the room, shutting off the light but leaving the door open a crack before heading back downstairs to sleep on the couch.

Despite how tired he was, sleep did not come easily, not with the child in the house. A part of him considered leaving and sleeping in someone else's house, but he knew he couldn't do that. When the monsters returned home he knew at least some of them, namely Alphys and possibly even Grillby, would come knocking on his door wanting to talk to him, and if he wasn't here when they came, then they might enter themselves thinking him asleep or simply ignoring them. If that happened and they found the child…Well, that wouldn't turn out well for any of them.

Exhaustion finally got the better of him though, but not for long. He was tormented with the visions of his friends dying in front of him. Of that child's maniacal smile and the crazed laugh as she struck out at him again and again and again. He heard the screams and pleading of the monsters as they begged for their lives and ran to get to safety, only to be violently struck down. He saw their accusing stares as they noticed him watching from the shadows, heard them shouting out at him, accusing him of being a coward for just watching all of this happen. He heard a child crying, pleading for their attacker to stop, please stop, no more, just stop, no more, no more, no-

Sans shot up with a gasp, clutching his chest as he fought against the panic that held him tightly in its tight clutches. He swallowed thickly as he tried to reorient himself, unsure what was happening.

"No more, no more, no more!"

Sans looked up to the top of the stairs from where the crying could be heard and slowly he crept up the stairs and found himself hesitating outside the door of his own bedroom. His hand hovered over the doorknob as he listened for the sound again, and he was about to walk away when he heard a soft whimpering voice.

"I-I'm sorry…"

Sans sighed as he rested his forehead on the wall beside the door, "Me too, kiddo…" he whispered, knowing she couldn't hear him. He turned and went back downstairs and sat on the couch, head in his hands as he cried silently.

It was hours before he moved again, roused from his misery by a demanding knock at his door, followed quickly by the sound of the door opening and a voice yelling in a very uncharacteristic manner, "Sans, where are you?! Come out right now!"

"'M over here," Sans said, too quietly to be effective at getting her attention. The scientist found him regardless, not a difficult task when one considered the fact that there were only two rooms on the main floor and the door lead directly into the room where he currently was. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him and then hurried over to his side.

"I was s-so w-w-worried!" she said, her voice shaky, "After everything th-that happened…And th-then you were acting s-s-so s-strange on the phone…What happened?"

"I don' even know where to start with that one, Alph," Sans said honestly, leaning his head back against the cushions and staring pathetically up at the ceiling, "I don't think I understand it myself."

"Wh-why don't you st-st-start with where you went while w-w-we were evacuating. Why didn't you c-come with us?" Alphys asked

"I went to stop the kid…She was going to Asgore, so I went to the golden corridor before the throne room and waited for the kid there…We fought, but no matter how many times I killed her, she kept coming back…"

"C-coming back…?" Alphys asked fearfully, "But then…"

"Something happened though…The kid…Started acting weird…Apologizing all over the place, acting like she hadn't wanted to do any of it."

"A trap?"

"That's what I thought. It wasn't clever, and I kept attacking, then the kid snapped. It was like she was two completely different people. The cold hearted killer, and a scared little girl."

"So what did you do?"

"I kept her talking…Found out there really was two people. Chara was the one killing everyone. She scared the kid into thinking monsters wanted to attack her, and when the kid attacked back, Chara grew stronger until the kid couldn't stop her. I managed to split them apart and kill Chara…I don't even know how I managed to do it…" Sans breathed.

"S-Sans…That…Doesn't make a lot of sense…" Alphys said worriedly.

"I know that!" Sans growled, "None of what's happened makes any sense, but it's what happened! The dead soul of the king and queens adopted child possessed and innocent kid and now that kid is sleeping in my bed and almost everyone we know is dead! How does any of this make sense?!" In a burst of anger Sans flung out his left hand, sending the plate with the cinnamon bunny flying across the room towards the staircase where the plate shattered against the wall, just barely missing-

"S-S-Sans…Wh-who's that?" Alphys asked fearfully.

The blue light faded from his eye as he calmed down and looked where Alphys was staring. There, crouching on the third step from the bottom of the stairs with the blanket from his bed tightly wrapped around them was the little girl. She was crying silently, her eyes clenched shut as though she was expecting another attack. Perhaps she was. What real evidence had Sans given her to prove that he wasn't going to hurt her any longer? All he'd really done was frighten her and make things worse.

"Kiddo, I-" he said as he stepped closer, but the child only fled, running up the stairs abandoning the blanket in her wake. He sighed angrily as he brought a hand up to cover his eyes and slumped back down onto the couch, "Way to go, Sans…" he muttered to himself, "as if you weren't a big enough screw up already."

"S-so that's…?" Alphys started quietly.

"The kid who was possessed by Chara, yeah," Sans replied, "She seems harmless. Terrified, but harmless."

"What's her name?"

"Beats me. She's not really the talking sort unless she's begging for her life or insisting on not eating anything. As you can see, I'm clearly not cut out for this." Sans replied.

"Wh-why won't she eat?"

"Dunno. You'd think committing genocide would work up an appetite," Sans replied bitterly, "she probably just doesn't have an appetite after killing all those poor, innocent monsters."

"B-but if you nearly k-killed her, th-then she n-n-needs to eat!" Alphys insisted.

"I know that! I tried to get her to eat but she refused, and honestly, I'm just too tired to deal with any of this right now!" he stood up angrily and grabbed his sweater as he headed for the door.

"Wh-where are y-you going?!" Alphys exclaimed.

"Grillby's." was his curt reply before he slammed the door behind him.

Sans kept his head down and his hood up as he headed towards his favorite eating establishment. He avoided eye contact with everyone he passed and ignored their calling out to him. Frustrated, he flung open the door, ignoring the sign that clearly declared it closed, and sat down at his usual spot at the bar, resting his head on his arms and glaring angrily at the wall to his left.

It was a while before he heard the fire escape door open, but if the barkeep was surprised or displeased to see Sans there, he didn't say anything. Instead he remained silent and a few moments later he set an order of fries and a burger in front of his line of sight, as well as a bottle of ketchup. For a moment Sans didn't move; he just closed his eyes and hoped that the barkeep would get the message and walk away, but when it became apparent that that was not going to happen, he instead sat up straighter with a sigh and shook the bottle of ketchup so some squirted over his fries.

"Thanks, Grillby," he said quietly as he ate one of the fries lethargically. He didn't realize he was actually hungry until he reached for another fry and found the plate completely empty. He couldn't remember eating all of it! He looked up shyly to see Grillby standing slightly sideways polishing a glass, though watching Sans discretely out of the corner of his eye. Sans wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "Sorry," he said quietly, "I, uh, guess I shouldn't be here huh?"

"Alphys called me and told me where you were." Grillby said in his low, warm voice, "She seemed quite concerned. Mind telling me why?"

Sans sighed, glaring angrily off to the right as though Alphys would be able to feel his glare from across town, "I threw something across the room and stormed off…" he admitted.

"Why was that?" Grillby pressed.

Sans covered his left eye with his hand. Though it had only been maybe an hour he couldn't remember the exact reasoning behind his actions, "I was angry." He knew that had been obvious to the barkeep, but that was the best he could give for an answer. The kid was part of the reason for his anger, but also- "I was angry at myself…The kid…The whole damn situation just-!" he lowered his hand clenching his hand into a fist. He heard several items clatter to the ground as his magic affected the gravity around them, and heard the glass that was in Grillby's hand slip and shatter.

Sans forced himself to stop, fully expecting Grillby to admonish him for destroying his property, but it never came. Instead the older monster simply grabbed a broom and swept up the mess and threw out the shattered glass. "Sorry…" Sans muttered.

"For what?" Grillby asked, feigning ignorance, "I dropped a glass; it happens. It's not your fault."

Sans lowered his head back on his arms and shut his eyes. Grillby knew how his power worked, and he knew it was in fact Sans's fault that the glass had fallen from his grasp, but he was ignoring it. He was ignoring it because he knew what happened. If he had talked to Alphys then he knew as much about the situation as she did, which meant he knew that Sans had watched as everyone was killed and then didn't even have the ability and the sense to actually finish the kid off properly. He knew that Sans was struggling with the decision of finishing the job or helping the poor child that was just as much a victim as any of them were. Grillby knew, probably better than anyone else in the whole of the Underworld just how damaged and broken Sans was, and that was before any of this happened. Now…Now it was probably a dozen times worse.

"What do I do, Grillby?" Sans whispered brokenly, reaching his hands up so that his hands were touching the top of his skull. If he had hair then his fingers would be tangled in it. Although, he supposed if he had hair he would have pulled it out by now or he'd be completely grey, so he supposed that it was for the best that he not have any hair to speak of.

"Well, what are your options?" Grillby asked.

Sans groaned, "Can we skip the setup for once, Grillby and just skip straight to the punchline?"

"But if you don't know the punchline, how can you deliver it convincingly? Furthermore, you know better than anyone that the punchline is only funny if the joke has been properly set up." Grillby said, a hint of a smile in his voice.

"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Grillby, so will you just give me the kind of wise, sagely advice all your patrons come in here for?"

Grillby sighed, "Alright, you want the kind of advice I give everyone who comes in here looking for advice? Here it is then."

"There are few problems that can't be worked out over good food in good company and a couple drinks and topped with a few bad jokes."

*Line*Break*

Sans walked home with his hands in his pockets pondering Grillby's advice. The older monster hadn't said much more on the matter and Sans finally just thanked him for the food and walked out. As he got to his door his hand hovered there for a moment. He really wasn't sure what he was expecting to find inside. Had Alphys left? Had this whole thing really been an elaborate trick by the kid-pretending that she was just as innocent as the other piece of her had been evil while in fact she was just as bad? Had the kid turned around and killed Alphys and was going to finish off the job she hadn't been able to do because the monsters had escaped? Was he going to be greeted with a stab to the ribs? Had the kid run away? Would he find-?

A scream from within broke through his thoughts and made his decision for him. He burst into the house, eye blazing with fury, left hand outstretched to either defend or attack- whichever he would need to do, to find-

Alphys and the kid were sitting on the couch in front of the television watching a cartoon of some sort, and the scream he had heard really turned out to be a squeal of excitement from the shy monster as she pointed at the character that had appeared on the screen and began cooing over how great she was at about a mile a minute.

Sans bite back the shout on the tip of his metaphorical tongue. At that moment he wanted little more than to yell angrily at Alphys about how much she had scared him, as well as give her heck about calling Grillby on him, but he instead let out a sigh and walked over casually, "Whatcha watchin'?" he asked.

"Mew Mew Kissy Cutie!" Alphys said quickly, not really acknowledging him. Then her face turned red and she turned off the television, "S-Sans! Y-you're back!" she exclaimed.

"I am," Sans replied, "I see you coaxed the kid out of hiding."

"Her name is Frisk." Alphys told him.

"And got her to talk too apparently," Sans looked over at the girl, Frisk apparently, but she wouldn't look in his direction, "Good to see you two getting along. Sorry for taking off on you earlier. Just needed some air."

"A-are you alright?" Alphys asked him.

"'Bout as well as can be expected." Sans replied, closing his eyes and shrugging. He then looked back over at Frisk, "Hey, so what do you two say about going over to Grillby's for a bite to eat? My treat."

Alphys looked back and forth between Sans and Frisk before pausing as she focused on Sans seeming to try and figure out what he was thinking. Her guess at this point was as good as his though-he was playing this by ear. She then looked back over at Frisk with an uncertain smile, "Wh-what do you th-think Frisk? You m-must be hungry too."

The little girl shook her head, arms coming across her stomach as it growled loudly. Despite himself Sans laughed, "Sounds like your stomach has other ideas. C'mon, let's go. Grillby will still be there." He shot a sharp look at Alphys who ducked her head ashamedly.

Sans managed to find some older clothes that fit Frisk fairly well since her clothes were still wet as he hadn't actually turned off the tap and she couldn't very well go out in the cold wearing nothing but an oversized t-shirt. She still was hesitant and kept her head down as they walked, fearful of how other monsters would react upon seeing her, and she quickly sat in a booth in the back, her back facing the doorway when they got into Grillby's. Alphys sat beside her and Sans across from the two of them. He looked over to Grillby who was already walking over and shrugged. This was apparently what the older monster wanted from him, so he would oblige, though he wasn't sure if this would work the way Grillby seemed to think it would.

"What d'ya want, Frisk?" Sans asked, trying to keep his voice light.

The little girl just shrugged and shook her head.

"I-I'll have some fries," Alphys said, feeling uncomfortable.

"Sounds great! How about three orders of fries, Grillby?" Sans said. The older monster nodded and walked away to get their food. The table was silent as they waited for their food, and when it came it came with three bottles of ketchup. Sans held out a bottle to Frisk, "Want some?" he asked. When she shook her head no and instead hesitantly picked a small fry off her plate Sans shrugged, "More for me then," he said as he tilted the bottle back and drank deeply. The girl watched wide eyed with an expression of mild disgust on her face, but it was nothing Sans wasn't accustomed to. Most monsters thought it strange that he enjoyed drinking ketchup. Grillby didn't much seem to care either way and just made sure to keep the bottles marked so he knew which ketchup bottles were Sans's.

"So, Alphys, what are you going to do after all this?" Sans asked conversationally.

"O-oh, um…I haven't really thought much about it. Go back to my lab I suppose." Alphys replied sadly, "Wh-what about you?"

"Well, I have some old experiments I never finished. I'll probably get back into some of my research on the source of the anomalies that have been occurring around here. I was thinking perhaps Frisk would have some insight on the matter and be able to help me."

The little girl paused in her chewing. She, like Sans earlier, seemed to have found her appetite and was eating quickly. She looked up in shock and glanced around the room before pointing at her chest.

Sans chuckled, "yes, you. You seem to know a bit about time travelling and skips, so maybe you'll be able to help me in my research. What do you say?"

"S-Sans, what are you thinking?" Alphys asked suspiciously.

Sans smiled, realizing something that he had been too blind to see before, "The kid knows, doncha?" he asked.

The girl was hesitant as she swallowed, "I-I can…" she whispered softly, "I-I wanna…I wanna fix it."

"Good. Then we'll do it. And next time, we'll both be better, right kiddo?"

Frisk looked up with a happy smile on her face, "Right!"

Grillby was right. There was little that couldn't be fixed with good food and good company.

 **Well now, what is this? Goodness, nearly 8000 words and I cranked this thing out in under 2 days. Sorry the ending is kinda weak, but I thought it came out pretty well considering I haven't really written anything in a long while.**

 **Anyway, I have fallen in love with Undertale (I know, who hasn't) and it just breaks my heart into pieces, so of course, I had to write out something sad and pathetic myself. I have more ideas, but I've pretty much given up making promises since I know I probably wont be able to keep them as far as these stories are concerned.**

 **And yes, I am aware of the idea that Frisk and Chara are supposed to be genderless canonically, but if people can take a character that is definitively male and play genderswap to make them female, or vice versa, I think I can take a genderless one and give it a gender. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to the creator, because while I haven't played the game myself I've watched enough playthroughs on youtube to know the guy really and truly knows how to make a game and deserves everyone's utmost respect for pulling something like this off. I simply just see Frisk as female, and Chara, well, depends on the situation I suppose. The name (which I know is an abbreviation for the word character) just looks more feminine, though when taking the tapes in the true lab into account, I see Chara as more male, though I think I refer to Chara as a she in this. Like I said, depends on the situation. Frisk likewise sounds more male, but for the purpose of insight I see Frisk as female. It's a videogame, I'm projecting myself onto the character to get a greater connection, so sue me. (please don't, I'm broke, I can't afford it). Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this, and if you have any suggestions for some sad and angsty fics involving Sans and/or Frisk, I'm all ears!**

 **Happy New Year, y'all, and while I don't think I really should have to say this seeing as I am on this site and all, I own none of these characters!**

 **EDIT: Fixed the font since it seemed to bother people. I just prefer typing in bold-makes it easier for me to follow my own ramblings on paper. And to the anonymous guest who was kind enough to point out how disclaimers work, thank you, but I do know that. I was merely making the point that seeing as this site is called FANFICTION. net, if people really think I'm trying to take credit for the characters and gameplay creation then they are simply being ridiculous. Clearly I don't own it.**

 **And yes, part of it was inspired by a youtube video of a comic done by Haze Spawn on DA**


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